Dubey & Schaldenbrand 360 degree reversible watch

April 1, 2006 Reversible watches got their start in the 1920s when English Officers found they were forever getting their watch crystals broken while playing polo and issued a challenge to watch manufacturers to overcome the problem. Swiss master watchmakers Jaeger-LeCoultre have long had a culture of innovation and the famous Reverso was introduced in 1931 in response to the challenge. Many manufacturers followed suit, though Jaeger-LeCoultre remains to this day the only company to provide a full range of Reverso watches for men and women and the brand is best known for the innovation despite several other significant world firsts in watchmaking. At BASELWORLD 2003, TAG Heuer unveiled the Monaco Sixty Nine Concept Watch, a reversible, mechanical/digital watch: on one side, the classic, square-cased Monaco dial and hand-wound movement; on the other, the high-tech digital quartz movement of the Microtimer. This innovative dual personality combining the 19th with the 21st century, was also the first mechanical watch with a 1/1000th of a second chronograph. Now another master watchmaker has produced a take on the reversible watch. Dubey & Schaldenbrand used BaselWorld 2006 to show the Spiral-verso VIP to celebrate the brand’s 60th anniversary. Its revolutionary case turns in all directions and proudly reveals the exquisitely-finished, entirely hand-engraved movement.

The elegant dial with its six blued half-spheres is crowned with a blue spiral in tribute to the celebrated Index Mobile invented by Georges Dubey in 1946.

The hand engraving on the various bridges by the company’s expert craftsmen, makes each watch unique, and with the patented reversible, every-which-way mechanism, owners will no doubt spend a lot of time pressing the release buttons and rotating the case to view the exquisite movement underneath.

The watch is waterproof to 30 meters. It is fitted with a unique strap of Royal Galuchat and supplied in a deluxe presentation case of inlaid precious wood.

After Editing or Managing over 50 print publications primarily in the role of a Magazine Doctor, Mike embraced the internet full-time in 1995 and became a "start-up all-rounder" – quite a few start-ups later, he founded Gizmag in 2002. Now he can write again. All articles by Mike Hanlon